SESDA Scientist Helps Reveal Additional Strange Behavior from Betelgeuse

August 20, 2020

An image from the Heliospheric Imager aboard NASA’s STEREO spacecraft shows the star Betelgeuse, circled. For several weeks in 2020, STEREO was the only observatory making measurements of Betelgeuse because of the spacecraft’s unique position in space. Credits: NASA/STEREO/HI

The red giant star Betelgeuse has intrigued astronomers by showing unusual dimming over the past several months. Led by a SESDA scientist, a team of investigators from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Naval Research Laboratory, and Rutherford Appleton Lab used observations from the STEREO spacecraft to confirm that Betelgeuse is dimming again. This finding is surprising as Betelgeuse typically goes through brightness cycles lasting about 420 days, with the previous minimum in February 2020. Hence, this dimming is happening unexpectedly early and is currently a mystery. The science team reported these observations via The Astronomer’s Telegram on July 28, 2020.

Comments are closed.